Hillary Clinton biopic aimed at potential presidential campaign

Rightwing US politicians who last year campaigned against the release of the drama Zero Dark Thirty for fear it could influence the outcome of the 2012 presidential election may have a new target in their sights.

Deadline reports that a biopic about the early life of Hillary Clinton – entitled Rodham – is being primed to tie in with its subject's mooted presidential run in 2016.

Screenwriter Young Il Kim's drama, which was included on the 2012 Black List of the best unproduced screenplays, centres on the future first lady and US secretary of state as she vacillates between her legal career and the attentions of a charming young suitor from Arkansas in the 1970s. Its synopsis reads: "During the height of the Watergate scandal, rising star Hillary Rodham is the youngest lawyer chosen for the house judiciary committee to impeach Nixon, but she soon finds herself forced to choose between a destined path to the White House and her unresolved feelings for Bill Clinton, her former boyfriend who now teaches law in Arkansas."

James Ponsoldt, director of the forthcoming comedy-drama The Spectacular Now, has been hired and Deadline says the film is likely to emerge in time for the 2016 primaries. Hillary Clinton, who lost out to Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primaries, is considered a favourite to run for the presidency again in three years' time.

Zero Dark Thirty was eventually released on 19 December last year just after the 2012 US presidential election, the timing designed to allay fears among Republican politicians that the movie could influence voters to cast their ballots for Obama. In the end the president was not depicted on screen at all, and critics focused on the film's controversial portrayal of US interrogation techniques in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden instead.